Swedish survey company MMT AB has made an important investment with the purchase of a TSS 440 pipe and cable tracker from Teledyne TSS Ltd. The Göteborg-based company is one of the leading survey operators in the Baltic Sea and the new TSS 440 will be used to identify the routes of the numerous cables that now criss-cross the region.

Marketing manager for MMT, Olof Nilsson, explained that extensive installation of submarine cables on the bed of the Baltic Sea over the past century has now made it important for the company to invest in its own cable tracker. "Several of these cables are poorly documented and extensive survey operations are often required in order to establish their correct location," he said. "During the past few years we have conducted several of the major cable and pipeline route surveys in the northern Europe. As a part of such assignments we normally investigate the existing cable and pipeline crossing locations to allow a safe installation."

"Over the past decade we have been renting TSS systems to map the existing cables in the Baltic Sea as well as for survey projects around the world. We are now very familiar with the 440's performance and capabilities which we find ideal for these assignments. We have now decided to invest in our own system as a part of our expansion into more advanced ROV operations and it will be mounted on our Sub-Atlantic Comanche work-class ROV."

"We have recently invested in new a new 40 meter survey vessel, IceBeam, which will be fully equipped for survey assignments in water depths between five and 500 meters," said Nilsson. "The vessel has been extensively upgraded and refitted during the last six months and the TSS 440 is one of the new advanced seabed mapping tools that we have purchased for it. The TSS system will also be used on our other vessels, such as theFranklin, 56 meters, whenever it is needed. We also have a specially designed under water sledge that has been adapted for the TSS system and this will provide an excellent tool for cable tracking in shallow waters."

The Teledyne TSS 440 is typically mounted on a ROV and uses pulse induction technology in conjunction with an advanced algorithm to detect its target. Depending on the size and shape of the target, the 440 offers detection ranges 30 to 50 per cent greater than previous models. This superior range means that it can also deal with the potential errors that arise when a cable is in an open trench or passing through a rock berm. Because of this, the Teledyne TSS 440 is widely regarded as the leading system for pipe and cable tracking with more than 100 systems being sold since its launch in 2003. It is widely used by the oil and gas and the submarine cables industries to locate and survey pipelines and cables on or below the seabed at water depths of up to 3,000m (9,843 ft).

MMT AB was founded in 1976 since when it has continuously expanded its operations in the fields of marine surveys and geology, positioning and high-resolution seabed charting. Its clients include companies in the oil and gas industry, energy suppliers, the telecom industry and chart producers. Its head office is in Göteborg, Sweden and it currently employs more than 150 people.